What do we do ?

The Sainte-Marthe factory in Marseille contains a sulfonation unit for the production of sulfonic alkylbenzene.

Sulphonic acid is used as a raw material in the formulation of detergents as powders and liquids.

The manufacturing process

• Liquid sulfur is injected into an oven at a high temperature where it ignites immediately. It combines with the oxygen from injected air to form the gas SO₂.
• This gas then goes through a catalysing tower containing vanadium pentoxide where it combines with another oxygen atom and comes out as the gas SO₃.
• After cooling this SO₃ gas circulates in reactors containing LAB (Linear Alkyl Benzene) to which it becomes fixed giving LABS, our famous sulphonic acid.

This process is very rigorous and we pride ourselves in producing a very high quality product.

Production

Each year we produce 13000 tons of alkylbenzene sulfonic acid, most of this tonnage being for a Korean partner as part of a subcontracting arrangement.